I had a bit of an epiphany in the shower again last night. I posted this on face book as well as my friends on the Wisconsin email loop. I found that the face book version has a LOT to spelling errors in it . . .it was late and I was trying to get it all down before I forgot it. This version is cleaned up quite a bit.
Kiss from the King . . .
In the past 10 years of my life, I have found myself to be at odds with family and friends due to the fact that I've walked away from traditional Christianity. The biggest struggle I've encountered is "not" that I'm left empty or alone as a result. But that I can't seem to find a way to get others to see that there is more . . .SOOO much more to the Father's love than what church, the mainline churches . . .religion in general have projected all these generations.
My quest is not to enforce what I see on anyone, but to plant a seed of transformational life in others and leave them alone to have that seed birth God's true nature in them at their own level of understanding. Then it just occurred to me, two things actually, not sure if I have the time to hit them both. But the first and foremost one is understanding the magnitude of what God's love truly is.
When I was a kid, the only love I knew was the love my parents had for me. Then as I grew into my early teens, I was head over heels for a girl that didn't have the same feelings toward me . . .and at that age, I'm sure they'd call it puppy love and what have you, but to a tween-aged kid, that moment was the world of love to him. Then in my early twenties, I gave my love to another person which the door abruptly slammed hard . . .broken-hearted, I felt my world had come to an end . . .I felt love no longer would ever be the same . . .it "could" have had I have let it. But then, in my late twenties, I found my best friend, fell in love, married in love and we've chosen to remain in love ever since . . .not that I made that an easy choice for her, but God gave her a hefty dose of love that allowed us to still be each other's lover for the past 25 years. And in that, I experienced an entirely different level of love by having two girls who are now in their early twenties themselves, finding out their own experiences of love, and two 8 year old boys who only know what it's like to be loved by their parents still.
That's a lot of levels of love . . .and I know for a fact that it's not just "my" experience, but it's every human being's experience. We've all experienced so many different levels of love. Notice not once in all of that had I mentioned God's love. I'll make up for that now. Love is the reason why I walked away from religion. I've fallen in love with the Father . . .not because I searched him out, but because he chose me . . .he's chosen every one of us . . .that's how we came to be. The moment we were conceived in our mother's womb, we were "assigned" by God to be in that specific parent at that specific moment in time. yes there's been many who've felt cheated and abused, but that's not because of God, that's because love has been perverted, abused, misused, abandoned, tromped down and totally disregarded.
But, NEVER defeated. All through our lives, love always finds a way to show up and heal what's hurting. Now . . .I've said ALLLLL of that to say this. God is love. He's not just "love", he's LOVE. Man will never fathom just what that means unless God decides to reveal it directly to you. But for me, if you take all those different levels of love like I mentioned as examples in my own life, and you ball them all together in to ONE experience of love . . .from the love a child receives to the love a parent gives and everything in between. (Let's not leave out grandparents in that)
All of that, pressed down, shaken together will only give you a glimpse of the Father's love for us. I would do ANYTHING for my wife, and for my kids. If it came down to laying my own life down so they could have theirs, I'd do it. If I knew that tomorrow, if one of them were to get on a plane and it was to crash, and I had ALL control at my fingertips, I would buy the airline and shut it down so they'd have to take a train. Are you following me?
As much as I love my kids and wife, God loves the entire world THAT MUCH MORE. Not only was he willing . . .but he DID give his only son because our relationship with him had broken and he had the wherewithall to fix it. Unless you think it's truly God's will that people go to hell because they reject his love. If your own kids rejected your love, would that stop you from keeping them safe? From wanting to be near them at every opportunity? How much more do you think God loves us?
Love did not give the ultimate sacrifice so we "might" choose his love over hell. He had the means to make it right and he DID IT. Love is just that great. Religion instills the fear of hell, God's love casts out all . . .ALL fear. If we choose him, all the better because that means we can experience that love NOW rather than after we're dead.
think about this . . . Jesus loved us so much that being WITH us wasn't enough. he wanted to be IN us!! That was his motivation to die for us. That was his motivation for his physical body to ascend back to heaven . . .so that he could return without a body in the form of the SPIRIT when he poured himself on all flesh in the upper room. And that's where he's been ever since . . .IN US. Sin is NOT more powerful than love. Our rejection is not more powerful than his love. Regardless as to whether we can accept it or not, love reconciled the broken relationship. I love him more now since leaving the church and all the religion it represented than I ever have in my entire life. How great is the Love of the Father to you?
Can you let him be great enough that the whole world is reconciled? Or is the love of the Father you embrace limited to only those who'd minds made the conscious decision. My God is greater than that, I pray your eyes will be opened to see that as well.
Kiss from the King . . .
In the past 10 years of my life, I have found myself to be at odds with family and friends due to the fact that I've walked away from traditional Christianity. The biggest struggle I've encountered is "not" that I'm left empty or alone as a result. But that I can't seem to find a way to get others to see that there is more . . .SOOO much more to the Father's love than what church, the mainline churches . . .religion in general have projected all these generations.
My quest is not to enforce what I see on anyone, but to plant a seed of transformational life in others and leave them alone to have that seed birth God's true nature in them at their own level of understanding. Then it just occurred to me, two things actually, not sure if I have the time to hit them both. But the first and foremost one is understanding the magnitude of what God's love truly is.
When I was a kid, the only love I knew was the love my parents had for me. Then as I grew into my early teens, I was head over heels for a girl that didn't have the same feelings toward me . . .and at that age, I'm sure they'd call it puppy love and what have you, but to a tween-aged kid, that moment was the world of love to him. Then in my early twenties, I gave my love to another person which the door abruptly slammed hard . . .broken-hearted, I felt my world had come to an end . . .I felt love no longer would ever be the same . . .it "could" have had I have let it. But then, in my late twenties, I found my best friend, fell in love, married in love and we've chosen to remain in love ever since . . .not that I made that an easy choice for her, but God gave her a hefty dose of love that allowed us to still be each other's lover for the past 25 years. And in that, I experienced an entirely different level of love by having two girls who are now in their early twenties themselves, finding out their own experiences of love, and two 8 year old boys who only know what it's like to be loved by their parents still.
That's a lot of levels of love . . .and I know for a fact that it's not just "my" experience, but it's every human being's experience. We've all experienced so many different levels of love. Notice not once in all of that had I mentioned God's love. I'll make up for that now. Love is the reason why I walked away from religion. I've fallen in love with the Father . . .not because I searched him out, but because he chose me . . .he's chosen every one of us . . .that's how we came to be. The moment we were conceived in our mother's womb, we were "assigned" by God to be in that specific parent at that specific moment in time. yes there's been many who've felt cheated and abused, but that's not because of God, that's because love has been perverted, abused, misused, abandoned, tromped down and totally disregarded.
But, NEVER defeated. All through our lives, love always finds a way to show up and heal what's hurting. Now . . .I've said ALLLLL of that to say this. God is love. He's not just "love", he's LOVE. Man will never fathom just what that means unless God decides to reveal it directly to you. But for me, if you take all those different levels of love like I mentioned as examples in my own life, and you ball them all together in to ONE experience of love . . .from the love a child receives to the love a parent gives and everything in between. (Let's not leave out grandparents in that)
All of that, pressed down, shaken together will only give you a glimpse of the Father's love for us. I would do ANYTHING for my wife, and for my kids. If it came down to laying my own life down so they could have theirs, I'd do it. If I knew that tomorrow, if one of them were to get on a plane and it was to crash, and I had ALL control at my fingertips, I would buy the airline and shut it down so they'd have to take a train. Are you following me?
As much as I love my kids and wife, God loves the entire world THAT MUCH MORE. Not only was he willing . . .but he DID give his only son because our relationship with him had broken and he had the wherewithall to fix it. Unless you think it's truly God's will that people go to hell because they reject his love. If your own kids rejected your love, would that stop you from keeping them safe? From wanting to be near them at every opportunity? How much more do you think God loves us?
Love did not give the ultimate sacrifice so we "might" choose his love over hell. He had the means to make it right and he DID IT. Love is just that great. Religion instills the fear of hell, God's love casts out all . . .ALL fear. If we choose him, all the better because that means we can experience that love NOW rather than after we're dead.
think about this . . . Jesus loved us so much that being WITH us wasn't enough. he wanted to be IN us!! That was his motivation to die for us. That was his motivation for his physical body to ascend back to heaven . . .so that he could return without a body in the form of the SPIRIT when he poured himself on all flesh in the upper room. And that's where he's been ever since . . .IN US. Sin is NOT more powerful than love. Our rejection is not more powerful than his love. Regardless as to whether we can accept it or not, love reconciled the broken relationship. I love him more now since leaving the church and all the religion it represented than I ever have in my entire life. How great is the Love of the Father to you?
Can you let him be great enough that the whole world is reconciled? Or is the love of the Father you embrace limited to only those who'd minds made the conscious decision. My God is greater than that, I pray your eyes will be opened to see that as well.